THE GAY SISTERS

THE GAY SISTERS (1942). Director: Irving Rapper.

The Gaylord Sisters have been waiting 27 years for their father's will to be probated, but a stubborn businessman named Charles Barclay (George Brent) refuses to accept their settlement offer. Seems the man has a personal grudge against one of the sisters, Fiona (Barbara Stanwyck), the reason for which comes out as this highly entertaining movie progresses. The other sisters, Evelyn (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and Susie (Nancy Coleman), don't like each other very much, with a true-to-form Evelyn doing her best to steal Susie's beau, "Gig Young" (played by Gig Young, who took his screen name from this picture). Then there's that little charmer Austin, who's sort of been adopted by Fiona. But whose little boy is he really? There are very interesting twists to this very well-acted and directed drama that transcends soap opera due to Lenore Coffee's excellent script and its sheer quality. Stanwyck is excellent, as are Fitzgerald and Coleman, and a large supporting cast including Donald Woods, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere, and Grant Mitchell. Young and Brent aren't slouches, either. Certain to stimulate debate is a scene between Stanwyck and Brent that could be taken as consensual (if cynical) sex or as rape! Irving Rapper, who is in full command of the picture, also directed Deception, The Corn is Green, Now, Voyager, and many others.

Verdict: Really the kind of movie they don't make anymore. ***1/2.

ANOTHER MAN'S POISON

Bette Davis

ANOTHER MAN'S POISON (1951). Director: Irving Rapper.

Janet (Bette Davis) is a well-known English author of mysteries who finds herself with an unwelcome guest at her country estate. George Bates (Gary Merrill of Mysterious Island) tells her that he and her husband pulled off a bank robbery during which a guard was shot. George wants to see hubby immediately -- but there's a problem: he's lying dead, murdered, in the study. George helps Janet get rid of the body but he decides to impersonate her husband for both of their sakes, a decision that leaves Janet most uncomfortable. For one thing Janet is madly in love -- or lust -- with Larry (Anthony Steel), the very handsome fiance of her secretary, Chris (Barbara Murray of Operation Bullshine). And then there's the nosy next-door veterinarian, Dr. Henderson (Emlyn Williams), who is simply asking way too many questions ...

"You Killed Fury!?

Bette Davis -- although she finally has a chance to do a full-on British accent after doing a half-assed one for most of her life -- is not the best casting choice for Another Man's Poison. Fortunately, towards the end of the movie she is afforded some chances for her intense and formidable acting pyrotechnics when she learns that her beloved horse, Fury, is dead.  "You killed Fury!" she screeches at George before launching into a great speech in which she fervently expresses that the horse meant much more to her than any human being possibly could. I suppose she can't be faulted for being stagy when the movie is based on a stage play, even if there are attempts to open it up and get her away from the basic house set. But for much of the movie's length Davis seems to be doing an impression of a drag queen doing an impression of Bette Davis!

Gary Merrill

But Davis is magnificent compared to her then-husband Gary Merrill. Merrill had certainly given some fine performances in other movies, but in Another Man's Poison he seems like a college student merely reciting lines with little emotion or nuance and hoping that he's making a decent impression. True, his character is never well-delineated, which gives him a handicap right from the start, but even so he is utterly mediocre. The only problem with Emlyn Williams is that his character, the Nosy Parker who lives down the road, is so irritating. It's also hard to believe that George would even humor the man. He'd be more likely to tell him to screw off.

Anthony Steel

Barbara Murray gives a pleasant enough performance as the secretary who fears that she just can't compete with her boss, who has decided that she wants her Larry and that's that. As Larry, the very handsome Anthony Steel provides hunk appeal, but his acting is nothing to rave about. As with Merrill, his character is very under-written. In any case, his on-again/off-again dalliances with his fiancee's employer make Larry seem like a sleazeball. Reginald Beckwith and Edna Morris are notable in smaller roles as a villager who pursues George for an appearance with a local club, and the family housekeeper. Another Man's Poison is modestly entertaining, but despite a somewhat ironic and amusing (if not unexpected) wind-up, it's too contrived and even silly to be that memorable. Anthony Steel was one of the husbands of Anita Ekberg. Irving Rapper also directed Davis in two much more memorable movies, Now, Voyager and Deception.

Verdict: Latter-day Davis in a mediocre vehicle that is not without some points of interest. **3/4. 

MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR

Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly

MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR (1958). Director: Irving Rapper.

Marjorie Morgenstern (Natalie Wood) takes a job at a summer resort and falls in love with the theater director, Noel Airman (Gene Kelly). At first Noel, who hides his Jewish roots, tries to convince himself that Marjorie is just another "Shirley," a typical Jewish American Princess, and her middle-class desires would never fit in with his plans. Still, over the years the two can't pull themselves away from each other, and their on-again/off-again relationship is beset with problems. Herman Wouk's novel has been reduced to an entertaining, slick soap opera that has some very good performances. Wood gets high marks as Marjorie, really giving a first-rate and honest portrayal of a tormented young lady. Gene Kelly just can't seem to get that far away from Gene Kelly, and his anguish over his failings both as an artist and a man just don't ring true -- he's too much of a winner for it to work. It's a perfectly good "Hollywood" performance but nothing more. As Marjorie's parents, Everett Sloane [The Big Knife] and especially Claire Trevor [The Velvet Touch] are more on the money, and Ed Wynn [Son of Flubber] makes his mark as Marjorie's beloved Uncle Samson. Carolyn Jones as Marjorie's best friend has a terrific scene when she nearly has a meltdown just before her wedding (as she's marrying Jesse White one can completely understand!). There are also good, if brief, performances from Martin Balsam as a doctor who falls for Marjorie; Edd Byrnes (billed as Edward Byrnes) as Marjorie's first boyfriend, Sandy; Martin Milner, as a playwright who carries a torch for Marjorie for years; Ruta Lee as a gal pal of Noel's; and others. Max Steiner has contributed a pleasant romantic score which helps a bit in putting this over.

Verdict: At least Wood and Kelly have definite chemistry! **1/2.

ANNA LUCASTA (1949)

Wickes, Goddard, Crawford, and a sleeping Homolka

ANNA LUCASTA (1949), Director: Irving Rapper.

The Lucasta family of Mayberry, PA. consists of daughter Stella (Mary Wickes); her husband, Frank (Broderick Crawford); her brother, Stanley (Whit Bissell); his wife, Katie (Gale Page); the mother, Theresa (Lisa Golm); and her husband, Joe (Oscar Homolka), a rather nasty alcoholic. When Frank discovers that Rudolf Strobel (William Bishop), the son of Joe's old friend, is coming to town to look for a wife and has money to burn, he and Stella come up with the idea of marrying him off to Stella's sister, Anna (Paulette Goddard), who was thrown out of the house because of a simple kiss with a date. Joe is violently importuned to go to Brooklyn to get his daughter back to Pennsylvania, so she leaves her sort-of boyfriend, sailor Danny (John Ireland), and comes back to the crowded suburban home. Just when things seem to be going well between her and Rudolf, whom she genuinely loves, Danny shows up, and her father shows his daughter just how utterly loathsome he can really be.

Anna Lucasta was based on a play of the same name that was originally about a Polish-American family, but which was turned into a play about a black family before its Broadway debut. (Playwright Philip Yordan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur Laurents, was himself Polish-American). It was inspired by O'Neill's Anna Christie in many ways. (It also has some similarities to Miller's later A View from the Bridge.) A London production reinstated the Caucasian family and Paulette Goddard played Anna as she does in the film. Almost a decade after the movie version was released, there was a superior remake with a black cast starring Eartha Kitt.

This version is more of a comedy-drama than the subsequent film. Goddard offers an okay Hollywood-style performance but she can't compare to Kitt who really lives and feels the part. It is made very clear that Anna has become a streetwalker even in this earlier version. If anything, her father's probably incestuous feelings for his daughter seem more overt than in the remake.

The supporting performances are the film's saving grace. You wouldn't think that Broderick Crawford and Mary Wickes would make a convincing husband and wife, but they sure do. Oscar Homolka is outstanding as the father, and there is fine work from Golm as his long-suffering wife. Gale Page makes a perfect, understanding sister-in-law to Anna. Two smaller roles are also of note: Dennie Moore [These Glamour Girls] in a marvelous turn as the bar waitress Blanche; and Grayce Hampton doing a wonderful dignified drunk routine as the soused patron, Queenie.

Verdict: Imperfect if interestingly-cast study of a clearly dysfunctional family. **1/2,

THE CHRISTINE JORGENSEN STORY

John Hansen 

THE CHRISTINE JORGENSEN STORY (1970). Director: Irving Rapper.

From his early childhood on, George Jorgensen (John Hansen) has felt like he was different, and identified much more as a girl than as a boy. Mistaken for being gay, he decides to discover more on his "condition" and is told that he has an excess of estrogen. George travels to Denmark where he is given permission to have what today we would call sexual realignment surgery. His story makes headlines in the New York Daily News ("Ex-GI Becomes Beautiful Blonde") and both he and his family have to deal with the fall-out of the disclosure. Christine Jorgensen was a true pioneer, and this fictionalized version of her story is interesting, but not all that well done, with a cheap look and tedious exposition. John Hansen is an effective lead, portraying both George and Christine equally well, although at times he's somewhat amateurish. Quinn K. Redeker (of The Young and the Restless) plays a reporter who falls for Christine and gives her her first kiss (which is actually a male-male kiss since Hansen was only playing a woman); Pamelyn Ferdin [The Beguiled] is George's sympathetic sister as a child; Elaine Joyce is a bitchy, homophobic model; Joyce Meadows [The Girl in Lovers Lane] is another, friendlier model; Joan Tompkins is George's ahead-of-her time Aunt Thora; and Will Kuluva [To Trap a Spy] is Professor Estabrook, who sets George on the correct path.

Another character is George's boss, Jess (Rod McCary), who turns out to be gay and gets angry when George denies his homosexuality. Jess nearly winds up assaulting George. A scene that could have been positive, showing a bond between two sexual minorities (however different), is instead thrown away for a bit of ugly, almost homophobic sensationalism. It's especially egregious because Jess is a likable character who tells George of many well-known gay men throughout history.

Irving Rapper also directed another famous movie about an amazing transformation: Bette Davis' Now, Voyager.

NOTE: Chistine Jorgensen's operation was not the first of its kind, but the first that was heavily publicized. There were some differences from earlier operations, and I've no doubt attitudes towards transsexualism and its origins have changed since this film was made nearly fifty years ago.

Verdict: Compelling at first, with a sensitive lead performance, but it drags a bit and, surprisingly, lacks dramatic intensity. **1/2.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Amanda and Tom: Gertrude Lawrence and Arthur Kennedy

THE GLASS MENAGERIE (1950). Director: Irving Rapper.

Faded Southern belle Amanda Wingfield (Gertrude Lawrence) is afraid that her son, Tom (Arthur Kennedy) will turn out like his father, who left the family many years before and was never heard from again. Amanda is even more worried about her daughter, Laura (Jane Wyman), who is lame, painfully shy, and perhaps has emotional disabilities as well. Amanda importunes Tom to bring a friend and co-worker, a "gentleman caller," named Jim (Kirk Douglas) to supper so he can meet and romance Laura, but things don't quite work out the way Amanda intended. The Glass Menagerie, based on Tennessee Williams' first play, which he in turn based on events and characters from his own life, has been a bit watered-down from the play and has a Hollywood [supposedly] "happy" ending, but it's still a very strong picture. Lawrence leads the cast with her excellent portrayal of a woman who is kind and loving but also, unfortunately, quite overbearing at times. As the alternate film version of Laura, Wyman [All That Heaven Allows] is very good, as is Douglas [The Brotherhood] as the upbeat and likable Jim. Arthur Kennedy [Claudelle Inglish] plays the role in a more robust and less sensitive style than other actors, but he is also quite good as Tom. Rapper's direction helps to intelligently open up the play, and there's an interesting encounter between Tom and a woman trying to pick him up in a bar. Max Steiner turned in a lovely and more subtle score than usual, generally letting the play speak for itself.

Verdict: Quite nice indeed. ***1/2.

THE STRANGE INTRUDER

Edmund Purdom and Ida Lupino

THE STRANGE INTRUDER (1956). Director: Irving Rapper.

During the Korean war, Paul Quentin (Edmund Purdom) promises his buddy Adrian (Donald Murphy of Frankenstein's Daughter) that he'll make contact with his family back home if he dies. After the war, during which Adrian is killed, Paul goes to his town to meet his family, who are unaware that he has mental and emotional problems -- they take to him as a surrogate of Adrian's. For some reason Paul takes too literally Adrian's telling him that he wants his children to be with him, and interprets this as meaning he must kill them...  The Strange Intruder works as neither drama nor suspense film, although Purdom gives a decent performance, as does Ida Lupino, playing Adrian's widow, Alice. The rest of the cast is interesting, too: a nearly unrecognizable Ann Harding [The Unknown Man] as Adrian's mother; Gloria Talbott as his sister; Douglas Kennedy as Alice's lawyer; and Jacques Bergerac [The Hypnotic Eye] as an ex-lover who is out to blackmail Alice. Carl Benton Reid of Amos Burke Secret Agent is on hand as Adrian's disabled father, who is able to walk again right after he meets Paul. [This also fails as an allegory, if that was what was intended.] Irving Rapper directed much better pictures, such as Now, Voyager.

Verdict: This should have been a half hour episode of some fifties dramatic series, and even then it might not have amounted to much. **.

DECEPTION (1946)

DECEPTION (1946). Director: Irving Rapper.

"It's so painful to be so happy."

The reinvented pianist Christine Radcliffe (Bette Davis) has been the protege -- and more -- of wealthy and neurotic composer Alexander Hollenius (Claude Rains), when back into her life comes a man she thought was dead and whom she truly loves, cellist Karel Novak (Paul Henreid). Naturally this doesn't sit well with Hollenius, especially when Christine and Karel get married. Will Holenius spill the beans about the truth of his relationship with Christine? Will Hollenius really let Karel be the lead cellist for his new concerto, or is he playing a sadistic game of cat and mouse with the hopeful man? [Two questions that are never asked: Was Karel himself completely chaste during the four years he was parted from his "Schatzi?" and would he object that much, despite his jealous nature, to Christine's carryings-on when she thought he was dead?] Although Davis' character in this acts maddeningly idiotic, and the foolishly melodramatic developments, while compelling (and leading to a great last line), are unnecessary in what starts out as a strong drama, Deception works due to the great dialogue in John Collier and Joseph Than's screenplay (as well as three-dimensional characters), and to a brilliant performance -- possibly his best -- by Claude Rains. Henreid and Davis are also good, although a notch below Rains, and Davis is terribly affected and mannered throughout [but quite entertaining in spite of it]. One of the best scenes has the three main characters at a restaurant when Hollenius increases Karel's nervousness -- he is to audition for him after dinner -- by taking forever to decide exactly what they should all have for supper. The concerto composed by Hollenius was actually composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (who also did the rest of the film's score), and it is beautiful. John Abbott does a superlative job as a rival cellist, Bertram Gribble, that Christine tries to bribe. Although some might dismiss this as a mere soap opera, it has a certain quality that lifts it above the ordinary soaper. At the wedding party, while Christine plays piano, Hollenius shatters a glass in his hand. Christine stops playing and, concerned, rushes to his side, whereupon the great man remarks upon how women get hysterical over a scratch but act all smiling and nurse-like at the sight of a mortal wound. It would have been interesting to see how Deception might have worked with a different actress in the lead. Although director Irving Rapper was able to reign Davis in a bit for Now, Voyager, he was unable to do so with this picture.

Verdict: There's more here than meets the eye. ***1/2.

BAD FOR EACH OTHER

BAD FOR EACH OTHER (1953). Director: Irving Rapper.

A young medical man is torn between helping the poor miners in his home town or joining a practice in which most of his patients would be bored, wealthy women. No, it's not The Citadel, it's a modern-day rip-off called Bad for Each Other. Charlton Heston is actually a military man with a medical degree who comes home to Pittsburgh after his brother's death. Lizabeth Scott is the rich gal he falls for, and Mildred Dunnock is his mother (both are very good). Arthur Franz is fine as an ex-serviceman who asks Heston for a job and Marjorie Rambeau scores as Scott's aunt. Heston saunters through the movie with his usual star charisma and gives a good performance, but this mediocre soaper with its one-dimensional characters and familiar plot is no substitute for the real thing.

Verdict: Watch The Citadel instead. **.

THE CORN IS GREEN

THE CORN IS GREEN (1945). Director: Irving Rapper.

Lilly Moffat (Bette Davis) comes to a small Welsh village and decides to help the miners -- many of whom are children -- by opening a small school and teaching them how to read and write. She especially focuses on a young man, Morgan Evans (John Dall), whom she thinks has real potential and can get a scholarship to a major university. But Bessie, (Joan Lorring) the impish, rather nasty daughter of Moffat's housekeeper Watty (Rosalind Ivan) has other plans for the young man. Mildred Dunnock and Rhys Williams are two villagers that Moffat enlists as teachers, and Nigel Bruce is the Squire with whom Miss Moffat must cross swords but whom she easily outwits. Bette Davis gives it a good try, and to be fair, her performance is lively and interesting, but she's much too young for the part and she plays Miss Moffat with an affectedness that goes completely against the down-to-Earth quality of the character. The rest of the cast is much better, however, especially Bruce and Dunnock. John Dall gives a superb performance, and young Joan Lorring, who was "introduced" in the film along with Dall, almost walks off with the movie. There are a lot of things one could quibble about in the film -- the miners always sound like a professional chorus as they march by singing, and the ending is a bit pat and has questionable aspects -- but The Corn of Green -- with its emphasis on knowledge and learning and bettering oneself and the plight of one's fellow man -- is still a solid, absorbing, well-crafted film that is undeniably stirring and poignant. Nice Max Steiner score as well.

Verdict: Good show! ***1/2.

NOW, VOYAGER

NOW, VOYAGER (1942). Director: Irving Rapper.

“No member of the Vale family has ever had a nervous breakdown.”

If you take the time to analyze this classic soap opera, you might find yourself wondering why you enjoyed it so much, as it is certainly full of moments both contrived and overly convenient, yet it works from start to finish on an emotional level, in no large part (although not exclusively) due to Max Steiner's memorable, intensely romantic musical score [which he recycled for at least one later movie]. Bette Davis gives one of her best performances – she is not as affected and mannered as she is in The Little Foxes, for instance -- as Charlotte Vale, who is dominated by a mother (Gladys Cooper) almost as bad as the old lady in Night Must Fall. Getting psychological treatment (it's never really specified what this consists of, although weaving is one of the components), and a major make over (it's also never specified who does this for her), her doctor (Claude Rains) suggests she open herself to life by taking an ocean cruise. There she meets a man (Paul Henreid) – unfortunately married -- who helps bring her out of her shell and feel attractive for what she suggests is the first time in her life (she obviously has forgotten her own flashback in which she relates her romance with a handsome wireless operator [Charles Drake] on a ship when she was twenty). Even though Henreid's wife sounds like a neurotic monster who is jealous and unloving of her own daughter, it never occurs to the man that a divorce might be in the offing. Certainly his daughter wouldn't be adversely affected by this, as she winds up meeting and loving Charlotte when she goes for a spell to – would you believe it -- the very same sanitarium where Charlotte got her “cure” (Charlotte has returned there after the emotional turmoil of her mother's death, which she unfairly blames on herself). Recognizing Henreid's child, another “ugly duckling,” Charlotte takes the girl under her wing and helps her, too, to blossom. In the famous ending -- “let's not ask for the moon, we have the stars” Charlotte tells Henreid – you get the impression that it won't be long until this supposedly wonderful man realizes which woman he should be spending his life with. This may not be a “serious,” profound drama, but the darn thing is nevertheless poignant and affecting because it deals in its own way with such compelling themes as loneliness; fitting in; the traps in choosing the right path in life and love; being cut off from the one person you need the most etc. It also has always struck a chord in the audience because of its intelligent exploitation of the ugly duckling/Cinderella aspect of the storyline: the hopeless geek makes good. Despite its many dumb moments, the well-acted and handsomely produced Now, Voyager is a cut above most of the other “Oh, how the rich suffer!” movies of the thirties and forties. Although it never could be said that Bette Davis was a genuinely beautiful woman, in some shots of this film she is genuinely stunning.

Verdict: Great Old Soap Opera. ***.